Fiorina: Palin qualified to be president

California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina might not think Sarah Palin is qualified to run a major corporation, but she said Monday night the former Alaska governor has the credentials to be the nation’s chief executive.

“I certainly think she’s qualified to be president of the United States,” Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO and Republican nominee for Senate, said during an appearance on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”

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During the 2008 presidential campaign, Fiorina said Palin didn’t have the experience to run a major corporation such as HP. In a subsequent interview, she said John McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden weren’t qualified either.

“Look you need technical skills to run a company. I couldn’t fly a jet airplane tomorrow either,” Fiorina told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “But ours was intended to be a citizen government. That is what of, by and for the people means.”

When Blitzer asked why Fiorina wasn’t planning to attend a national Republican fundraiser headlined by Palin this weekend in California, the former HP chief replied that her calendar was full.

“As you can appreciate, your campaign schedule gets set quite far out in advance in terms of commitments,” Fiorina said. “Sarah Palin is here to endorse her book, I believe, and raise money, and I am here running for office. So we’re all busy. And it’s important that I continue to meet with as many voters as possible.”

Earlier in the CNN interview, Fiorina sidestepped a question about whether she sees herself as part of the tea party movement, which has upended the GOP establishment this election season.

“I see myself as a citizen running for public office for the very first time. I see myself as serving the voters of California,” Fiorina responded.

“There are tea parties, and I would say plural, in California. There’s a tea party in Marin County. There’s a tea party in San Diego, but there are also many independent voters, decline-to-state voters, Democrats as well as Republicans who are endorsing and supporting my candidacy,” she added. “This is about how to get our state and our nation back on the right track.”